Have you ever had a dream, but you couldn’t decide if it’s something you should pursue or just a passing fantasy? I love dreaming, so I once wrote A 5 Step Process to Take a Dream to Reality and a similar post 7 Steps to Achieve Your Dreams, but how do you ensure you’ve got the right dream?
Here are 5 steps to processing a dream:
Pray specifically – Ask God to confirm if this is His dream or your dream. He loves to confirm if it’s His. If it’s not, thank Him for a creative mind, make sure it’s not against His written word, and that you sense no inner conviction that it’s against God’s will for your life. Ask God’s Spirit to steer you away from any dream beyond His plan for your life.
Write it down – You’d be amazed how different something can look like once it’s on paper. Write out your dream. Create a plan to accomplish your dream. Be as realistic and as detailed as you care to be, but look at your dream on paper.
Share it with a few people – God will use others to help discern and confirm. Make sure you trust the people and don’t let them kill the dream, but let them be an outside perspective to help check your heart and shape the dream.
Compare your experience – Have you been in preparation for this dream? I’ve noticed that many of the dreams I have come out of past experiences I’ve gained. It doesn’t mean you can’t do pursue a dream for which you have no experience, but it’s easier to process when it lines with how God’s path has directed me.
Take the advice test – In my observation, the more active dreamers tend to also be risk-takers. Ask yourself, if a good friend came to you with a similar dream, with similar circumstances in their life, would you advice them to take the risk? You may need to follow your own advice.
Have you got a current dream? I’d love to hear it.
If you’ve survived this process, let me voice saying:
